Citizen Funded Elections

We now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass a new law, based on countless democracy reforms passed and successfully implemented in states across the country, the For the People Act. The bill, which will go to a vote of the full House the first week in March, includes provisions that will end secret, unaccountable money in politics, help ensure every voter, regardless of their race, ethnicity, age, or ZIP code, has equal access to the ballot box, end partisan gerrymandering, and strengthen conflict of interest and ethics laws for public officials. The For the People Act, designated as H.R. 1 and S. 1 in Congress, is the most comprehensive pro-democracy bill introduced in Congress since the Watergate era. It is the bold action that the American people want and deserve. 

According to Common Cause Senior Counsel Stephen Spaulding, the implications of not getting H.R. 1 passed could be extremely serious. Spaulding, who helped write H.R. 1 while serving as Senior Elections Counsel to the Committee on House Administration, warned that the damage Republicans could inflict on democracy in the absence of federal action could be irreparable. “For democracy in general, the danger of not taking action is potentially catastrophic, given the precision and targeting and manipulation of the rules that some state legislators are doing to make it harder to vote,” he said. Spaulding explained that Republican efforts to restrict voting took off after the Supreme Court’s decision inShelby County v. Holder, which invalidated the 1965 Voting Rights Act’s requirement for states with a history of racial discrimination to submit changes in voting rules to the Justice Department for pre-clearance. But he added that establishing uniform standards for voting across all 50 states would not have a partisan tilt one way or another. Until Trump started attacking the validity of postal ballots, Republicans had made use of them in greater numbers than Democrats in many key states. “Ever since then, we know that there are elected officials at the state level who have been working tooth and nail to make it harder to vote, so this is an opportunity to really level the playing field,” he said. “I think these are basic, common-sense solutions to make voting more convenient no matter what party you’re in…. We just had the most the highest turnout election… in the middle of a global pandemic, and that’s because people took steps across the country to make voting more convenient. Now we need to lock those in.”

The events of January 6 in Washington, D.C., were shocking and appalling. We saw armed rioters, incited by President Trump, storm our center of government and loot the U.S. Capitol — which led to at least five deaths. The violent mob, spurred by conspiracy theories and lies, failed in its attempt to overturn the results of an election — the same election Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security said was, "the most secure in American history.” But this tragic attack on our Capitol should not be understood as just a reaction to the incitement of insurrection of the outgoing president. This horrific event came after years of ignoring structural weaknesses in our Republic. Our democracy was, and continues to be, undermined — and we must immediately fix it.

Minority Leader McConnell’s (R-KY) decision to hold up the Senate’s organizing resolution over the filibuster rule was a trial balloon that failed. Americans voted for change and they expect the new President and the new Congress to address the pressing health, financial, structural racism, climate, and democracy crises facing our nation. McConnell, a fierce architect of obstruction throughout his tenure in Congress, has signaled his plans for the 117th Congress: Delay, deny, and distort the Majority’s right to set the chamber’s agenda at every turn. We have seen this before when McConnell spent six years abusing the filibuster at unprecedented levels during the Obama administration. This cannot be allowed to happen again.

Now is the time for political leadership. In the wake of the Jan. 6 armed insurrection attempt to overturn our 2020 presidential election, we should expect our elected leaders to strongly confront the lies, conspiracy theories and white nationalism that have polarized this nation. But it will take more than that. Our democracy was, and continues to be, under attack, and we must immediately fix it. The U.S. House of Representatives will soon be voting on H.R. 1, the For the People Act, the most transformative democracy reform package since the Watergate era. This comprehensive set of democratic reforms and anti-corruption measures will protect and expand the right to vote, reduce the role of big money in politics, end racial and partisan gerrymandering and amplify the voices of hard-working Americans.

Other democracy advocates are focused on efforts to take money out of the electoral process. Beh A Rotman, director of money in politics and ethics at Common Cause, has argued for publicly funded political campaigns to level the playing field between ordinary citizens and wealthy interests. “Citizen-funded election programs step in to create space for policies that favour large swaths of everyday Americans. Particularly when combined with restrictions on lobbyist and government contractor contributions, these reforms represent the best way to prevent government capture by the wealthy,” she told The Independent. “In states and cities with these programs, ordinary citizens are more empowered to participate in democracy and better represented by those elected to office. Races are much more competitive, and the legislature is more representative of the state; local small donors matter. “Citizen-funded elections are the best instrument we have to combat the problem of money in politics. The future of our democracy may depend on it,” she added.